Back to Life

We're baaaak! Did you miss me? I'm still on Trinidadian time and traumatised by our journey back. You will remember that when we departed there was a lovely hurricane called Dean creating havoc? The day before departure, we all head down south to my brother's estate in Mayaro. I get organised and leave one of our suitcases behind with K, who we've organised to get a lift to Piarco International Airport. As we make our way eastwards, we're listening to storm warnings. There's a tropical storm brewing in the Atlantic called Felix. Joy. There is rain, wind, lightning and thunder, but then, it is rainy season and it's well named. Though the really nice thing about tropical weather is that once it's finished tipping it down, the sun comes up. None of this grey-for-weeks nonsense like you get here.

Saturday
8am - get up have breakfast. Make farewell calls to various branches of family. Head their warnings about Felix and ring the airport to be informed that all is well and situation normal.

11.15 - set off to airport.

12.50 - arrive in airport. Book in on earlier flight, as we've done better time on the roads.

13.30 - take off from Piarco International in the tiny island hopper. I'm gripping the armrests of the seats in preparation for the turbulence we are told to expect. What a disappointment. Not even a bump. The landing was an 8.5. Waiting for the luggage takes longer than the flight over.

14.30 - go to check-in and start to queue. One of the people in the queue says the dreaded 'D' word. Sure enough the rude staff confirm, the plane hasn't yet left London, is due to take off any minute now, should be in by 11.30, due to depart Tobago 1.30 Sunday.

15.15 - complete check-in process and search for misplaced sense of humour. Go back to bookshop who is prepared to let me buy and return books, choose 2 rubbish books. Return to restaurant buy beer and coke.

16.00 - head to Storebay to have a look around for last minute shopping and scout out places to eat later. We are accosted by a guy flogging glass-bottom boat trips. Haggle. Wait until 17.00 and go out to Pigeon Point Coral Gardens and the Nylon Pool. We had to be lifted in and out of the boat because we were in our travelling gear. For the first part of the journey we sat on the top of the boat, got deafened by the reggae, and took in the sights. It was cool and the colour of the water was amazing. Yes, we would have seen more in the underneath, but it was good to be outside. When we got to the Nylon Pool it started to rain, so we went underneath while everyone else dived in and swam around. By this time the sun was coming down and the rain was quite insistent. The trip back wasn't that great, the seas were more rough and the boat wallowed around like a duchess in a Victorian swimming cossie. We landed in Storebay in complete darkness, but hale and hearty.
19.30 - find a 'French' cafe, part of a chain that operates in Trinidad and Tobago. The waitress' face says closed, but has a lovely smile. We order a cheese burger, with fries and chicken Parmesan and pasta. It's a good meal. The restaurant has a telly showing the Sound of Music with subtitles. We push our luck there until 20.30 where we head to the main restaurant and bar at the airport. By the way, everything mentioned here is literally 5 mins walking distance.

20.30 - Talk to another rude member of staff and find out plane is now not scheduled to arrive until 1.45. Estimated time of departure is now 3.30. Flurries of texts between myself and Viking, who said he'd come pick us up at the airport. Bearing in mind it's his day off, he's got to drive down from the North to Gatwick and drive us back to Norfolk, it's in the back of my mind that I'm pushing my luck a bit. Our arrival time was supposed to be 8.55, Sunday morning, now it was 18.30.

22.30 - get kicked out of the main bar and find out that the plane has to stop at Antigua for refuelling. Arrival time now 19.15. I've read 3/4 of first book. We go into the departure lounge where we are offered two bottles of free drink. The lounge is heavily air conditioned and there's some football match being played on the telly at a ridiculous volume. The woman who gives us the drink does not reply when I ask whether it's possible for her to turn it down, she just gives me a funny look and gestures to another more sparsely furnitured lounge. Boy stretches out and goes back to sleep.

Sunday
00.30 - Boy wakes up. I'm nearly finished the second book. I finish it and re-read the bits that amuse me. When I go the washrooms through the other lounge, I leave the books on a table. There are people asleep in hard plastic chairs, on the carpeted floor; we are all refugees here.

1.45 - The plane finally arrives. There is a flurry of activity on the tarmac as bleary passengers and their luggage are offloaded. People start waking up and moving about. Boy and I have a half-hearted game of Eye-Spy. There are several bouts of rain and high winds. There are rumours that the delay is caused by Felix growing up into a hurricane.

3.00 - We are so bored now, our humour turns inappropriate. We try to see who can fart the loudest and smelliest. Boy wins, though I've given him a good run for his money.

3.20 - We finally board the plane, Boy and I are aggressive in our queueing. We are fed up with the staff issuing the same instructions to keep our passports open at the picture page and our boarding passes immediately at hand. She says 'boogie' instead of 'buggy' when instructing parents to have the contraption folded before they approach the departure point. We only laugh the first 5 times. When we get on board, we negotiate so he can have the window during take off and landings.

4.00 - The plane takes off and heads towards Antigua. It turns out that the plane that should have been making the run failed it's maintenance check and Excel had to pull one of the planes from their European leg to make the trip down to Tobago instead. The staff on-board more than made up for the rudeness of the ground staff. They were genuinely helpful, polite and considerate. Nothing was too much trouble. I managed to sleep for most of the trip, Boy didn't seem to be able to get comfortable.

19.15 - Land at Gatwick. Get text from Viking to say he's waiting in arrivals for us.

19.45 - Get hugged and have massive Public Display of Affection with my Viking. We agree food is in order. Apparently road works means the traffic is diabolical. Viking says he'll stay the night and go to work from mine. I am relieved.

23.30 - Get home to a happy cat and pristine flat...or was that the other way round.

I'm really glad we went. It turned into a proper holiday for us in the end and it was great to see everyone. Unfortunately, all the good food forced upon has completely undone all the good work of the last month, but I don't regret it. Not one morsel. There's just more of me to love.